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Liberty Day Address 

of the Hon. James Francis Burke 

Before the Chamber of Commerce of Pitts- 
burgh, Pennsylvania :: October 24th, 1917 




"Americas Responsibility 



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At the close of this address, members of the Chamber 
present instantly subscribed for $700,000 00 worth of 
Liberty Bonds in addition to what they had alreadvtaken 




Hon. JAMES FRANCIS BURKE 
General Counsel Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh 



TRANSFERRED FROTH 
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"AMERICA'S RESPONSIBILITY" 

Hon. James Francis Burl^e 



Being introduced by President Robert Garland, Mr. Burke said: 

For the first time in our world's history a great nation by proclamation 
has set apart a single special day and designated it "Liberty Day." 

The cause and the occasion combined cannot fail to challenge both study 
and attention and this distinguished gathering is eminently capable of both. 

I have wondered recently how many of us pause between prayer and 
sleep at the close of each day and realize the pitiable and helpless state of de- 
moralization in which the world finds itself at the opening of what promised 
to be the most peaceful and prosperous of all the centuries. 

In spite of all the physical, intellectual and moral power possessed by the 
sixteen hundred million human beings on earth, the world has been so dis- 
rupted and disorganized by the brute force of an ambitious autocrat and the 
entire social fabric has been so weakened and undermined by his treachery 
that in order to set itself right and re-establish respect for law and order among 
nations a million innocent children of God must be mangled by the cruel 
engine of war, and that with the fifteen million or more who have already fallen 
in the fight and made their peace with God the end is not yet in sight. 

How many fully realize the fact that plead with each other as earnestly 
as we know how, pray to God as fervently as we may, prepare for tomorrow's 
duty as rapidly as all our faculties and facilities permit, we are helpless to 
end the present agony and injustice from which the world is suffering, without 
laying at least a million more human lives on the altar of sacrifice? 
WE MUST FACE REALITIES. 

In order to right the wrong already done and avert the greater evil 
sought to be inflicted upon the world we must face the stern realities of the 
situation and having fixed the responsibility for this bloody chapter of scien- 
tific barbarism we must proceed to terminate the crime and if necessary ex- 
terminate the real criminal. 

And by whom was this atrocious condition brought about? 

If in the confusion of tongues and the excitement of its inception the 
real instigator of the war may for the moment have been a matter of con- 
troversy, time has fathomed the purpose and events revealed the power behind 
the first military movement that resulted in drenching Europe in blood. 

The reason for forty years of preparation that made of all Germany a 
choking arsenal and every city of that great empire an armed camp, revealed 
itself when that mighty force of more than a million trained men with the 
bewildering swiftness of enchantment, at a given signal from the throne of an 
autocrat, broke across the Belgian line and plunged in the direction of Paris. 

CRUEL COURSE CONSISTENT. 

From that hour to this the unspeakable brutality that has marked its 
course has been in keeping with the premeditated plans for plundering the 
world, which manifestly marked the original purpose of Prussian preparation. 

While outwardly threatening Russia in the first hours of controversey she 
disclosed her real purpose of conquering the world, beginning with the fall 
of Paris, by mobilizing her military forces on the French border on the oppo- 
site side of the German Empire from Russia. 

Take the record of every event that followed and as Germany stands 
before the Judgment Seat of God let her answer the twenty-three civilized 
nations of the world which outrage upon outrage have ranged against her 
today, and let her tell what the real purpose of her forty years of preparation 
and what was the real motive of her savage and brutal treatment of those who 
had given her no offense, whatever. 

THE WORLD HER VICTIM AND ACCUSER. 

Before the tribunal that shall fix the guilt for the world's bloodiest crime, 
call the roll of nations and see who stand in the line of Germany's accusers? 



Serbia, Russia, Belgium, France, England, Japan, Italy, Portugal, 
Roumania, Montenegro, China and the United States, every one of whom has 
been compelled to draw the sword in defense of their rights, while their national 
self-respect has also compelled Brazil, Bolivia, Panama, Cuba, Guatamala, 
Peru, Honduras, Nicaragua, Uraguay, Haiti and San Domingo to sever 
diplomatic relations or declare war against this same common enemy of 
civilization. 

AN ANCIENT PREDICTION. 

To determine whether these nations are justified in their attitude of op- 
position to Germany let the record itself speak. 

Sixiteen years before Germany's invasion of Belgium startled the world. 
Admiral Von Goetz of the German Navy, with apparent first hand knowledge 
of Prussian plans, made to Admiral Dewey this statement which is preserved 
in the United States Naval and Military Records, Volume 52, page 478: 
About fifteen years from now my country will start her great 
war. She will be in Paris about two months after the commence- 
ment of hostilities. Her move on Paris will be but a preliminary 
step to her real object, the crushing of England. Some months 
after we have finished our work in Europe we will take New 
York and probably Washington and hold them for some time. 
We don't propose to take any of your territory, but we do pro- 
pose to take a billion or so of your money from New York and 
other places by way of indemnity. The Monroe Doctrine will 
be taken charge of by us and we will put you in your place. 
We will take charge of South America as for as we wish to. 
Now remember this and it will interest you. 
Could words portray more accurately that which events have proven? 
Even though the pessimist doubt the discretion of a German officer making 
such a boast and even though some might question its authenticity at that 
time, what was going on in the world that gave, as it were, the Divine inspiration 
to the hand that wrote that statement nearly twenty years ago? (applause) 

CONFIRMATION OF CONSPIRACY. 

From another distinguished witness comes testimony as the conspiracy 
ripened into deeds: 

Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey when this war 
was being planned, adds this: 

"On August 18, 1914, as American Ambassador at Con- 
stantinople I called on the Marquis of Pallavicini, the Austro- 
Hungarian Ambassador, to congratulate him on the Emperor's 
birthday. The conversation turned to the war, then in its third 
week, and His Excellency told me that when he visited the 
Emperor in May, His Imperial Majesty had said that war was 
inevitable. 

"The Austrian Crown Prince was murdered at Sarajevo on June 
28, yet weeks before the Austrian Emperor had confided to his 
Ambassador to Turkey that war was inevitable. 

"A more remarkable confirmation came from Baron Wagnen- 
heim, the German Ambassador at Constantinople. After the 
arrival of the Goeben and the Breslau in the Dardenelles, he hav- 
ing directed their movements, by wireless, while they were en- 
deavoring to escape from the British fleet, the German Am- 
bassador informed me that at a conference held in Berlin early 
in July the date of the war was fixed. 

"This was presided over by the Kaiser; Baron Wagenheim 
was present to report on conditions in Turkey. Moltke, the 
Chief of Staff, was there and so was Grand Admiral von Tirpitz. 
With them were the leaders of German finance, directors of 
railroads and captains of industry whose aid was essential to 
the Kaiser in putting his vast military machine into operation. 
Each was asked if he was ready for war. All replied yes except 
the financiers, who insisted that they must have two weeks in 
which to sell foreign securities and arrange their loans. 

"Nobody outside of the inner circles of the Berlin and Vienna 
governments dreamed of war as a result of the Sarajevo assassi- 



nations. They took good care that no suspicion should be 
aroused. The Kaiser went straightway to Norway on his yacht. 
The Chancellor left Berlin for a rest. 

"The diplomatic corps had no intimation of the impending 
calamity, and the British Ambassador went away, leaving the 
embassy to the Charge d'Affaires. The same drug was used in 
Vienna, and even when the blow fell the Russian Ambassador 
was absent from his post on vacation." 

MARKETS OF WORLD RAIDED. 

From the date of this conference the German financiers were 
busy with their part while the army marked time. All the 
great stock exchanges experienced an acute financial depression 
as German-owned stocks were quietly pushed into the market. 
In New York, there were astounding slumps in quotations. 
Between July 10 and July 25, which was two days before the 
ultimatum was sent to Serbia, Union Pacific dropped from 
154% to 125%, Baltimore & Ohio went from 90% to 78%, and 
United States Steel slumped with the railroad stocks. 
If the movement of troops, the destruction of property, the burning of 
homes, temples of art and shrines of religion, the ravishing of women and the 
mutilation of little children do not already furnish adequate proof of the 
correctness of this prediction, listen to the bold and blatant corroboration 
from the Emperor himself to Judge Gerard, the American Ambassador, at 
the new palace at Potsdam on October 22, 1915, more than a year after the 
war began. Judge Gerard writes: 

"The Emperor was standing, so naturally I stood. He stood 
very close to me and talked very earnestly. He showed great 
bitterness against the United States and repeatedly said: 
'America had better look out after this war.' And again he 
repeated ' I shall stand no nonsense from America after this war 
ends.' " 
In the process of Prussian psychology the hour for chastising America 
was to arrive at the close of this war. The fact that we were to be chastised 
was openly stated by no less a personage than the Emperor himself. 

AMERICA'S HUMILIATION ALWAYS IN MIND. 

Manifestly Germany counted by that time upon controlling the French 
and British navies and proceeding forthwith to treat the United States with 
the same merciful consideration that a brutal parent accords a defenseless 
child. 

And still later, writes Judge Gerard, the Frankfurter Zeitung, the most 
conservative of newspapers, published an interview with Von Tirpitz in which 
the latter advocated ruthless submarine warfare against England to bring 
about its speedy surrender. 

"'After the surrender of the British fleet, the German fleet 
with the surrendered British fleet added to its force was to sail 
for America and exact indemnities sufficient to pay the whole 
cost of the war.' And in a public letter more recently published, 
Von Tirpitz advocated the holding of the Coast of Flanders for 
use in the war against England and America." 

NOT THOUGHTLESS EXPRESSIONS. 

These are not fugitive expressions, the accidental product of the moment, 
but rather the definite fixed language of those in authority, indicating their 
determination, as soon as the day would permit it, to humiliate America and 
in turn make Germany the master of the world. 

It was the duty of Judge Gerard to heed those experssions and record 
them with accuracy for the future information of his Government. In doing 
so he was attending legitimately to the business of a duly accredited represen- 
tative of a civilized nation at the court of another. In contrast with the course 
of the German Ambassador to this country, Judge Gerard's time was 
spent in smoothing out the rough places created by Germany's disregard of 
international ethics, (applause) 



GERARD VERSUS VON BERNSTROF. 

He was not organizing an army of spies, nor spending millions to induce 
traitors to destroy property and commit murder in the house to which he was 
accredited as a representative and in which he was a guest. He was living and 
acting the part of an ideal American to whom the obligations of treaties were 
not merely scraps of paper and to whom international law was not a mere 
weed in the pathway of progress to be trampled upon and crushed at will. 
THE FINAL INSULT. 

Add to all this chain of events the secret message of January 21, 1917, 
tendering bribes to Mexico and Japan and urging them to join Germany in 
war upon America, if, when Germany renewed the murder of our citizens 
we dared take up arms in defense of our rights. 

And through all this tale of underhanded treachery what has been the 
history of the open, flagrant, violation of American rights? 

In my hand I hold a list of 226 American men, women and lisping infants 
who were mangled or strangled by the deadly work of hell-born submarines 
operated under the evil genius of Germany. 

Despite all our patience, unparalleled in history and despite Germany's 
solemn avowal that she would observe the rules of International Law and 
respect American rights in the future, she startled and shocked the world by 
sending the most insolent message ever transmitted by one nation to another, 
on the night of January 31, 1917. 

According to that message the month of February, was to give birth to a 
new law which was to govern the conduct of the people ofthe United States. 

The great highways of the seas were to be denied us; the ports if the 
Old World were to be closed against our ships, our citizens and our commerce. 
AMERICA SWEPT FROM SEAS. 

Where we might go, when we might go and what we might do, the Amer- 
ican people and the American Government were no longer to have the privilege 
of determining. Our conduct and our commerce were henceforth to be regu- 
lated and governed not from Washington by our chosen representatives but 
by a set of self created masters seated around a mahogany table in the capital 
of the German empire. 

What a glorious and generous permit Germany had concluded to issue 
to a free people ! Here are the rules of conduct that we were to observe : 

Rule Number One. One American ship a week might sail and that must 
land at a single port in Europe on the Sabbath Day. 

Rule Number Two. In sailing to and from that port she must follow 
a straight and narrow path prescribed by the Prussian Government. 

Rule Number Three. Before putting out from port she must first have 
painted upon her hull the stripes and colors set forth in the German edict. 

Rule Number Four. She must fly from her mast a banner of red and 
black bars to indicate that she is the one American ship that Germany permits 
to travel between the New and the Old World during that week. 

Rule Number Five. She must carry nothing on board that Germany 
and Germany alone may decide to be contraband. 

Rule Number Six. Defy these rules and we will sink your ships and 
murder your people without warning. 

GERMANY'S RULES FOR AMERICA. 

That, my countrymen, was Germany's insolent ultimatum to America. 
Yield to it and American commerce with the Old World was literally swept 
from the seas. The products of our mills and mines, our factories and farms 
must rust and rot until at Germany's sweet will we might renew our legiti- 
mate trade with the nations of the Old World. The American farmer migh- 
walk the highways of the Republic in despair, the toiling millions who man 
the mills must walk the cities' streets in idleness and American capital must 
lie impotent in the bank vaults of the nation until on bended knees like supt 
pliants we were able to secure from our new master the right to toil and trade 
upon the high seas. 

To this challenge what was America's answer? 

What could have been the reply of a self-respecting nation? It was this: 
These United States were established to destroy Old World dominion over 
New World affairs and every dollar of our money and every ounce of our 
blood will be sacrificed before America will yield to any such edict from any 



Kaiser, King or Czar that ever assumed to dominate the world. 

And now that the answer has been given and a million American boys are 
tenting tonight in the very shadow of death, every man, woman and child in 
America is confronted by this question. 

Are the United States as a soverign power worth preserving? 

If so, what am I doing to prevent their destruction? 

When our boys fall face downward in the trenches tomorrow they will 
go to their death for America. And as America consists of you and me and 
our 100 million fellow citizens, each of us should ask: 

Am I really worth dying for? 

What have I done since this war began to justify any boy who wears 
the uniform of the American soldier to lay down his life for me? 
WHAT IS YOUR DUTY? 

If in the search of our conscience there is not revealed that which would 
indicate that our duty has already been done, this is the hour to begin The 
timepiece of the centuries has struck and the responsibility rests upon every 
American to do his full duty. See to it that these boys shall not freeze for 
want of clothing, that they shall not starve for want of food and that they 
shall not die ignominious deaths for want of arms and ammunition to make a 
worthy and effective fight against the common foe of civilization, (cheers) 

And none of these things can be accomplished or furnished with out sacri- 
fice upon the part of the millions of people living amid ease and luxury at home. 
LET NO DOLLAR BE A TRAITOR. 

It will require money, and the American who hoards his dollars and re- 
fuses to aid his government at a time like this is just as guilty of treachery to 
his country as is the man who hides ammunition from his soldiers in the face 
of an enemy upon the field of battle, (applause) 

The possession of a Liberty Bond is in itself a certificate of partnership 
which Uncle Sam and without it, because of the small denominations in which 
they are being furnished, no well-to-do American will be in position to greet 
the boys upon their return home, or the flag at the head of their column at 
the end of this war and to say, ' ' I did my bit to aid you in the victory, I did 
my share to keep my country's flag floating in the sky when others sought to 
drag it in the dust." (Applause) 

NOT REALLY SUFFERED YET. 

Much as we have done we have not yet reached the stage of real self 
denial in this country. 

In company with Lord Northcliffe, whom I regard as one of the greatest 
men England has produced in a century, I had the pleasure of addressing the 
most notable gathering ever held in the city of Cleveland on Monday evening. 
I was profoundly impressed by the blunt but truthful manner in which he 
told that audience that we really knew little if anything thus far of the real 
effects of this great war, and that the same could be said of many of the 
people of England until recently. 

Much less have we suffered even surface sacrifices. 

Amid all our luxuries and surroundings let us think of the change that 
has come over the habits of the English people. 

Gasoline today is two dollars per gallon and in order to use every ounce 
they can secure for the engines of war, not a single pleasure car will be allowed 
to run in England after the first day of December. 

Look at Germany! After suffering a loss of billions in money and 8,500,000 
in men — dead, wounded and missing — she has just completed the raising of 
the Kaiser's seventh loan aggregating $3,107,500,000. 

Shall we, with $250,000,000,000 of wealth pause in the path of duty when 
our country needs money to maintain her men in arms? 

Let us awaken to the real choice before us. 

It is bonds today or indemnities and taxes foryears to come. 
EFFECTS ON COMMERCE. 

Now a word as to some of the commercial aspects of this war. 

To begin with, the peaceful industrial and commercial revolution that 
is going on in the United States, is going to leave its impress upon the future 
in a manner second only in importance to the results of the military contest 
that is being waged in Europe. The ease with which our government has 
invaded fields heretofore deemed wholly within the scope of private enterprise 
and the manly spirit in which the giant leaders in every great field of 



L1DKHK! ur v-unuRcoo 



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American scientific, industrial and commercial activity nave yieiueu is 
forming a chapter that through the centuries will command the world's 
respect, (applause) 

BUSINESS MEN'S RESPONSE. 

Realizing as they do that this war is not a mere contest to be waged by 
the valiant men in the trenches and the gallant soldiers of the seas, they are 
placing at the disposal of the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy 
the full potential strength of every laboratory in the land, of every shipyard 
along the coast, of every railroad that spans the continent, of every mill and 
mine and farm, of every scientific institution and every commercial and bank- 
ing house whose development have contributed to the unparalleled story of 
American progress, (applause) 

Crippled though we have been for ships our foreign trade has aggregated 
the staggering total of six billions of dollars. 

From a debtor nation we have swung into the other column and now lead 
the list of creditor nations of the world. 

With every nation in need of the basic element of credit as never before, 
we have in our vault's nearly 40% of the entire gold supply of the world. 
This is vital in maintaining the standard of our money at home and in the 
markets of the world. 

With a Federal Reserve System, newly born and rapidly perfected through 
the necessities of war, we have an instrument capable of marshaling as never 
before the financial resources of the richest of all nations, (applause) 

Within a year we have provided for appropriations from the public 
Treasury aggregating over 22 billion dollars with an ease and a confidence 
that would have astounded a Croesus in ancient days, (applause) 

ENORMOUS EXPENDITURES EXPLAINED 

In this connection you may ask why our expenditures during the first 
year of the war aggregate more than that of Great Britain and other countries 
during the entire three years of the war. 

There are seven substantial reasons: 

First. In our blind devotion to the ideals of peace we were the least pre- 
pared of all. 

Second. We have profited by the errors of those who have lost billions in 
money and millions of lives by delaying appropriations in the beginning. 

Third. There has been such an enormous increase in prices since the war 
began that the United States has been compelled to pay the penalty of the 
natural conditions and the high prices that prevailed when she concluded no 
longer to tolerate German outrages and assaults. 

Fourth. From the beginning they have had much more regulation relating 
to food, military and war supplies in France and England than we have had. 

Fifth. The cost of maintaining the American army and navyjiave always 
been greater than those of the other countries at war. 

Sixth. In addition to all this, our great distance from the seat of war 
adds materially to the expense of establishing and maintaining our position 
as a military factor. 

As an illustration of this last item, I might cite the appropriation of two 
billion dollars essential for the building of ships alone, which work is now in 
progress of completion 

But the United States have only begun to prepare for the mighty future 
before them. 

THE VITAL DUTY BEFORE US. 

And if we are wise, the very day this war ends we should be at the very 
highest point of industrial, commercial and military efficiency, (appaluse) 

For that day will mark the beginning of the greatest contest for trade in 
the annals of nations. 

If we be in position to command our rightful share in the world's business 
the political and commercial influence of the United States and the moral 
and material influence of the American people upon the world will transcend 
anything ever known in history. 

The world is at the cross roads! The future holds for God's children an 
era of brute force and military oppression or the everlasting reign of the finer 
humanities for which the Prince of Peace gave his life on the cross of Calvary. 

Which shall it be? 

Let America answer, (prolonged cheers) 



jy &n 





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS) 



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